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I’ve blogged several times before (here, here and here) about Nominet’s misguided proposal for a cosy relationship with law enforcement agencies. Their issue group has come up with a revised set of draft recommendations that they will be proposing to the board for adoption.

As per last time, the same misguided principles remain. There has, however, been a fair amount of improvement, particularly in respect of transparency, process, and an appeals process. However, it’s still (rather startlingly) not obvious how ‘connected’ your domain name has to be to an alleged criminal, in order to be subject to the policy; in simple terms there is nothing to stop an alleged criminal using a demon.co.uk address causing the suspension of demon.co.uk, or an employer having its domain suspended because of the unauthorised actions of an employee. And the Issue Group seems still undecided as to what alleged crimes should be covered, wavering from those that create ‘a clear risk of imminent serious harm to individuals’ to any crime at all (beware your employee who sends an email when driving).

In short, they’ve improved the process and some of the safeguards, but not addressed at least two key issues, and the overarching point: why on earth should Nominet be doing this at all?

The email to tell you all about this came out this afternoon (17 October) describing a meeting held on 21 September. They want responses by 20 October, which I have to say is not up to Nominet’s normal standards in terms of reasonable consultation periods, but if you want to submit your own response, write to policy@nominet.org.uk. You’ll need to type quickly.